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Microsoft is no stranger to collaborating with musicians to show off creative uses for its technology. With the Music x Technology project, the company has worked with acts like Big Grams, Neon Indian, KEXP, Phantogram and others to use its Kinect to enhance the musical experience for fans. I got a first-hand look at "Realiti: Inside the Music of Grimes" back at Moogfest in May, an exhibit that let fans remix parts of a song by interacting with a mesh surface. With the help of creative agency Listen, Microsoft teamed up with electropop duo Broods to produce a music video using the Microsoft Band.

If you needed further signs that humans are likely warming the planet, you just got it. NASA and NOAA have independently determined that Earth surface temperatures in 2015 were the hottest since record-keeping began in 1880, beating the 2014 average (the previous record) by a sizeable 0.13 degrees Celsius. Most of the on-record warming happened within the past 35 years, too. And you can't pin this on weather patterns like El Niño. While those conditions certainly contributed to 2015's higher temperatures, it was the "cumulative effect" of decades of warming that led to the new high.

Withings' Aura sleep system can only do so much to help you rest by itself. Wouldn't it be nice if it could keep the climate just right, too? It can now -- the Aura just got support for Nest's learning thermostat. When they're linked up, the Nest will maintain an ideal temperature for sleep (around 64F to 68F, or 18C to 20C) once you're unconscious, and revert back to its earlier settings once you've woken up. It's a simple addition, and it won't be cheap at about $550 for the pair. Still, that cost might be justified if you frequently jolt awake because you're freezing or roasting.

There's no shortage of smart thermometers out there, but they tend to have one or more catches: many only work in certain conditions, aren't very pocketable or require some kind of contact. JoyWing's upcoming Wishbone may just tackle all of those problems in one fell swoop. The tiny, Y-shaped gadget plugs into your smartphone's audio jack and uses an infrared sensor to gauge temperatures without contact, regardless of whether you're pointing it at your baby's forehead, a hot drink or the great outdoors. It should be both accurate and fast (just two seconds to get a reading, the company claims), and the matching Android and iOS apps will let you track conditions over time.

The glass on your smartphone screen doesn't do a lot right now: it lets pictures and touch input get through, and that's about it. It may pick up a few extra talents in the future, though. Researchers at Polytechnique Montreal have developed sensors that can sit under the surface of the scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass used in many mobile devices. Their approach etches optical waveguides into the display, letting it track changes in light. As a result, the screen can do things that would normally require either wiring or dedicated sensors. Your phone could check its temperature using light, and the manufacturer could even embed a unique optical pattern into the glass that lets the phone identify itself; it might get much harder to clone a device (and, presumably, its information).

When I first heard about Blue Maestro's Tempo Bluetooth Smart Thermometer (£29.00, or about US$48), it was shortly after I had a conversation with a new friend about creating such a device. Ron, who I met on a recent cruise vacation, had wondered aloud why there wasn't an accessory for the iPhone that would let you check the local temperature. While his idea was more like a plug-in dongle for an iPhone or iPad, I think Ron would be happy with the Tempo Bluetooth Smart Thermometer.

Specifications

Dimensions: 2.87" x 3.54" x 1.1" (73 x 90 x 28 mm)

Weight: 3.4 oz. (96.38 gm) with batteries installed

Connectivity: Bluetooth Smart (requires iPhone, 4S, iPhone 5, iPhones 5S and 5C and all later models of iPhone; iPad Mini, iPad 3 and all later models of iPad; iPod Touch 5th Generation and all later models of iPod Touch. iOS devices need to be running iOS 6, iOS 7 and later operating systems.)

For something that you're probably going to use around the house, the Tempo is quite attractive. It has a rounded triangular shape and looks more like a small art object than a temperature sensor. The three nonslip silicone feet ensure that you can place the Tempo on many surfaces -- even if they're not perfectly flat -- and it will stay in one place.

Tempo is waterproof, so if you want to use it as an outside temperature monitor it will work just fine. Note that the low end of the temperature range is -13 degrees Fahrenheit (-25 degrees Celsius), and that a lot of locations in North America got that cold this year...

The two AA batteries are fairly easy to get to -- I was able to pry open the case with a fingernail, and I know it will be a cinch to replace them in a year. There's only one button on the device, a small pushbutton that's placed directly in the center of mass of the Tempo. Push it and a small LED lights up on the bottom of the device, indicating that it's powered up and ready to talk to the accompanying Tempo Thermometer iOS app (free).

Functionality Highlights

Tempo comes with the two AA batteries pre-installed, so setting it up was very easy. I just preloaded the app on my iPhone and iPads, pushed the button on the bottom of the Tempo, and then watched as the temperature came up on the app. Initially it showed the temperature in degrees Celsius -- changing to Fahrenheit was easily accomplished through settings.

The device stores up to 24 hours of temperature readings, so if you happen to be away from your Tempo for a while you can see what the temperatures were like for at least the last day. If you have more than one Tempo, it's simple to rename the devices with a more descriptive title, like "Bedroom", "Kitchen" and the like.

The app shows all of the readings from your various Tempos. There's a small indicator that tells you if the iPhone and device are currently in Bluetooth contact or not, and it appears that the app shuts off its request for Bluetooth connectivity in between requests. Tapping on a specific reading opens up a chart showing either 12 hours (portrait) or 24 hours (landscape) of readings. There's also a "table" button that, when tapped, provides a list of hourly temperature readings that can converted to a PDF or CSV file for emailing. Unfortunately for me, the emailed file was in degrees Celsius, not Fahrenheit. For most of the world, that's not a problem!

There's also a thermometer view that's available in the app -- a tap on a thermometer button brings up a replica of a bulb thermometer with scales in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. The app also allows users to easily set up alarms; perfect if you want notification when a certain temperature is reached.

When I think about my friend Ron's need for an iPhone-centric thermometer, I know that the Tempo would only serve part of his needs. What he really wants -- and I have to agree with him -- is a device that could either be part of an iPhone case or a small dongle that could be plugged into the Lightning or headphone ports for easy on-the-go temperature readings. My hope is that the Blue Maestro team will have a success with Tempo and will work on a smaller, more portable device.

Conclusion

While it's not something you could carry in your pocket in order to make spur-of-the-moment temperature readings, Blue Maestro's Tempo is an attractive and very functional Bluetooth Smart Thermometer that's perfect for home or office use. Blue Maestro has done a good job of making the Tempo easy to set up, and the app is surprisingly full-featured.

Wish you'd had the foresight to build the Nest thermostat and get Google's attention? You can't travel back in time, but Spark may give you the next best thing. It just posted a walkthrough showing how to build a smart thermostat of your own. The device centers around both the company's WiFi-equipped Spark Core as well as off-the-shelf displays and sensors from Adafruit, Honeywell and Panasonic. Its software won't compete with anything from Nest, but you can both change the temperature and view historical data from most any modern web browser. More importantly, it's open source -- you can program your own features or simply learn how things tick. While Spark's thermostat won't be an easy DIY project unless you're good with a CNC mill, it's proof that you don't need a vast array of resources to build your own climate controller.

Honeywell has had WiFi-capable thermostats on the market for some time, but few of them would be a great match for home interiors that have escaped 1980s beige chic. The company's new Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat is going a long way toward bringing that design fully into the present century. Owners can color match the touchscreen interface with the paint on their walls, down to very exact shades. Of course, the thermostat wouldn't be much of a competitor in the Nest era if it didn't have some of that namesake intelligence underneath. As with its main rival, the Honeywell system has (already existing) Android and iOS apps, and can tell how long it takes to change the temperature; it's also aware of when filters need a change based on furnace behavior. If you're on the cusp of a home renovation and don't want anything so gauche as a differently-colored screen, home improvement shops should have the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat this May for $249.

First they invaded our factories, and now it's our hotel rooms. Is nowhere safe from the robots? In truth, Ibis' upcoming Sleep Art project is very slick, even if it smacks of robot voyeurism. Ibis hotels in Berlin, London and Paris will let 40 successful applicants sleep on beds that each have 80 sensors translating movements, sound and temperature into truly unique acrylic paintings by robotic arms connected through WiFi. You don't have to worry that the machines are literally watching you sleep -- there's no cameras or other visual records of the night's tossing and turning, apart from the abstract lines on the canvas. All the same, if you succeed in landing a stay in one of the Sleep Art hotel rooms between October 13th and November 23rd, you're a brave person. We all know how this ends.

We haven't seen weather stations garner the same level of clever mobile integration as other pieces of household gear -- like, say, thermostats. Netatmo wants its newly available Urban Weather Station to inject a similar dose of life into a category that some of us still associate with the thermometer by the window. The aluminum tube design certainly gives a fresh look to the WiFi-linked indoor and outdoor sensors, but the real trick is the matching iOS (and eventually Android) app. It's for more than just gauging the wisdom of biking to work: the free app tracks historical trends and shares them with fellow users in a network that Netatmo hopes will provide a better understanding of wider-scale and longer-term trends. The sensors go beyond just obvious air quality, humidity, pressure and temperature conditions as well, flagging noise levels and warning if the CO2 levels are high enough to warrant airing out the house. The $179 price for the Urban Weather Station isn't trivial, but neither is knowing just how well you can cope with your environment.

You may have noticed Google's forecast feature on your HTML5-capable smartphone browser -- simply typing "weather" into the search field brings up a basic real-time temperature tool, complete with hourly and five-day forecasts for your current location. That feature has been around in one form or another since the beginning of last year, but as of this week, it's made its way to tablets, too. Web weather is entirely browser based, and you can bring it up in just the same way as on a smartphone -- confirm that your GPS is enabled, then head to Google.com and type "weather" -- you'll be rewarded with a 10-day forecast, complete with temp, precipitation, humidity and wind speed readouts. The tool is interactive, so while you may only be able to view a few days of weather at once, you can simply slide along the timeline to see more. The same applies to the hourly forecast as well. There's nothing to download or subscribe to for this one, and it's available right now at Google.com.

This impressive wrist / forearm cuff is the brainchild of Adafruit forum member and modder Stephanie, who has built a sensor platform into the fashion accessory. The device can monitor the exposure value, track your movements over GPS, measure your galvanic skin response, tell you the temperature, humidity and even doubles as a watch and flash-light. It was built around Sparkfun's Pro Micro development board and a boatload of sensors purchased from Adafruit. We might just build one ourselves with a radiation detector, so that we can live out our Pip-Boy fantasies down at the mall. %Gallery-156412%

Who said the butterfly effect couldn't apply to renewable energy? Though wind farms are considered pretty green on the energy-generating spectrum, it looks like they, too, have an impact on the planet. According to a study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, turbines can raise the local temperature -- albeit slightly. From 2003 to 2011, researchers monitored satellite data for west-central Texas, which is home to 2,350-plus turbines and four of the world's largest wind farms. In that decade, scientists observed a temperature increase of 0.72 degrees in wind farm regions compared to areas without turbines. That warming trend was especially marked at night, when the temperature difference between the ground and the air is highest. The temperature increase was also higher in winter; researchers say that these cooler, windier conditions cause turbines to generate more electricity and therefore create more heat. Since the study didn't find any change in daytime temperatures, it looks like we don't have to ring the global warming alarm just yet.

The ad game is all about targeting: demographics, locations, keywords -- and really, few companies are more equipped to target users than Google. In case you were worried that the search giant doesn't have enough information to harvest, a newly surfaced patent outlines the company's interesting utilizing environmental conditions, including things like temperature, humidity, sound, light or air composition, in order to serve up advertisements to devices. Of course, as with other interesting ad patents from the company, the fact that Google applied doesn't necessary mean we'll be seeing this specific technology rolling out any time soon -- or ever, for that matter.

The Dutch website ran a GLBenchmark test on the new iPad and the iPad 2 and compared the infrared profiles of each device. According to their measurements, the hottest part of the new iPad reached 33.6 degrees Celsius (92.5 degrees Fahrenheit), while the iPad 2 ran at a cooler 23.8 degrees Celsius (74.8 degrees Fahrenheit). You can see the differences in the image above where the new iPad is on the left and the iPad 2 on the right.

The team at Tweakers attributed this difference to the quad-core GPU of the new iPad. When its being stressed by a benchmark test, the GPU will generate extra heat that'll raise the temperature of the device. Though high, the levels measured by Tweakers were still within the operating limits of the device which are 32 degrees to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees to 35 degrees Celsius).

Even if more reports corroborate these results, this excess heat issue won't be a problem for most people. If you game a lot and live in a warm climate, you might have to watch your usage, but most people don't stress their devices with heavy gaming. Under normal usage, the iPad might get slightly warm, but it shouldn't climb to the point where the device regularly shuts down.

This multi-layered device can't shower you with hail or tan your outdoor-deprived complexion, regrettably. What it can do though, is deliver a direct haptic sensation of how warm or cold it'll be tomorrow, just in case you decide to venture out of your bedroom. An Arduino controller pulls in forecast data from the web and uses it to adjust a Peltier element and a cooling fan, which are housed along with a heat sink inside a neat and tactile aluminum box. The Cryoscope is the handiwork of industrial design student Robb Godshaw, and it's the reason he already knew he'd be wearing a skinny t-shirt and stripey socks in the video after the break.
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arduinodesignforecasthapticheat sinkheatsinkindustrial designindustrialdesignpeltier elementpeltierelementrobb godshawrobbgodshawrochester institute of technologyrochesterinstituteoftechnologysensationtemperaturetouchvideoweatherweather forecastweatherforecastMon, 06 Feb 2012 08:28:00 -050021|20164925https://www.engadget.com/2011/11/14/inside-secure-announces-nfc-chips-to-help-distinguish-knockoffs/https://www.engadget.com/2011/11/14/inside-secure-announces-nfc-chips-to-help-distinguish-knockoffs/https://www.engadget.com/2011/11/14/inside-secure-announces-nfc-chips-to-help-distinguish-knockoffs/#comments

If you can't tell if a Rolex or a knockoff Prada bag is fake, your NFC-enabled smartphone will be able to. Toking on a long-standing problem with counterfeiting, French company Inside Secure has released the Vault150 security module, a NFC-based chip that can be embedded into any product a retailer might wish to have authenticated by prospective buyers. This could become as easy as literally embedding the chip, as NFC chips require no power source, can collect RF energy from an NFC reader such as a smartphone and complete an authentication request for a potential buyer.

For more intricate products where the chip might have to be buried deeper, Inside Secure has also offered several antenna options that allow the chip to be placed well within an item and still communicate with an NFC reader. In cases where a module needs to be embedded in items like a bottle of wine or pair of shoes, the chip can use a slew of voltage, frequency or temperature change sensors to sense if someone has tried to alter the chip's information and return a warning from there. Along with authentication purposes, the devices could also ping a shopper's handset (in addition to doing cool things like opening doors) when they came within a certain range of a product, informing them as to the savings they might be about to pass by. Final pricing and availability has yet to be announced and there's no guarantee that this will spot every fake, but it'll probably be better at the task than the current champ (yes, Chumlee).
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authenticationchipchumleedoorembeddedfrequencyinside secureinsidesecurelockmobilemobilepostcrossnfcpawn starspawnstarspradarfrolexshoppingsmartphonetemperaturevault150vaultic150voltageMon, 14 Nov 2011 22:48:00 -050021|20104616https://www.engadget.com/2011/10/25/ipod-fathers-unveil-their-next-project-the-nest-learning-thermo/https://www.engadget.com/2011/10/25/ipod-fathers-unveil-their-next-project-the-nest-learning-thermo/https://www.engadget.com/2011/10/25/ipod-fathers-unveil-their-next-project-the-nest-learning-thermo/#comments

Over the summer, we got word that a couple of unnamed ex-Apple engineers were getting ready to unveil an unnamed product, under the guise of an unnamed startup. As it turns out, that startup was Nest Labs, and those Apple alums were none other than Tony Fadell, longtime SVP of Apple's iPod division, and lead engineer Matt Rogers. And yes, the product they had to share makes fine use of a click wheel.

But if you thought they'd be cooking up a next-gen music player, you'd be wrong. Instead, the pair have been designing a thermostat, of all things, dubbed the Nest. In addition to being the most stylish model ever to grace a dining room wall, it promises the kind of intelligence we've come to expect in other household appliances -- just not thermostats, per se. It'll go on sale next month for $249 in places like Best Buy, but we managed to snag an early sneak peek. Find some photos below and when you're done, join us past the break where we'll explain how it works.
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apple ipodappleipodconnected homeconnectedhomegreengreen techgreen technologygreentechgreentechnologyhands-onheatheatingipodmatt rogersmattrogersnestnest labsnest learning thermostatnestlabsnestlearningthermostattemperaturetemperaturesthermostatthermostatstony fadelltonyfadellTue, 25 Oct 2011 09:36:00 -040021|20089709https://www.engadget.com/2011/08/09/delkins-cf-cards-handle-all-weathers-so-quit-yo-jibber-jabber/https://www.engadget.com/2011/08/09/delkins-cf-cards-handle-all-weathers-so-quit-yo-jibber-jabber/https://www.engadget.com/2011/08/09/delkins-cf-cards-handle-all-weathers-so-quit-yo-jibber-jabber/#comments

Delkin sneers at wimps who sit around all day debating whether it's worse to be too hot or too cold. Its new 32GB and 64GB rugged CompactFlash cards relish both extremes, with a claimed operating temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees Celsius. They achieve this by eschewing the cheaper multi-level cell design of namby-pamby mainstream cards in favor of single-level cells that last for up to two million cycles and max out at 105MB/s reads and 95MB/s writes. We wouldn't stick anything else in our SnoMote. Full details in the PR after the break.
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arcticclimatecoldcompactflashdelkinextremeflashflash memoryflashmemoryheathotmemorynandruggedtemperaturetoughTue, 09 Aug 2011 09:47:00 -040021|20012925https://www.engadget.com/2011/08/02/us-army-wants-thermally-adaptive-shirts-less-of-that-b-o/https://www.engadget.com/2011/08/02/us-army-wants-thermally-adaptive-shirts-less-of-that-b-o/https://www.engadget.com/2011/08/02/us-army-wants-thermally-adaptive-shirts-less-of-that-b-o/#comments

War-making apparel is about functionality just as much as fashion. That's why the US Army is offering a cool $1million in research funds to anyone who can help realize its dream of "thermally responsive textiles." The ultimate goal is clothing that automatically tailors itself to rapid changes in ambient and body temperature, thereby removing the need for alternative garments and reducing the weight and 'cube' of a soldier's payload. So-called smart fabrics have already been demonstrated by army scientists, based on comfy-sounding metallic fibers that curl up when it's cold and straighten out when it's warm. That sort of technology just needs to be reworked to make it practical and laundry-safe. We don't want those strong colors bleeding out in the wash, because as the line goes: if you're going to fight, you might as well clash.

It's pretty easy to cool down an overheating desktop computer with an extra fan, but what do you do if there's no air? That's the hurdle NASA's engineers are hoping to clear with a new prototype pump that the agency unveiled last week. The pinkie-sized instrument relies upon a technology known as electrohydrodynamic (EHD)-based thermal control, which uses electric fields to inject coolant through small vents on a thermal cold plate, before moving the extra heat to a radiator and spreading it far away from any temperature-sensitive areas. With no moving parts, the lightweight cooler uses only about half a watt of power and can be sized to work with small electric components or lab-on-a-chip devices. The challenge is to make sure that the pump can survive the vibrations of a rocket launch, though NASA will put it to the test during a rocket mission on June 9 and in 2013, when an EHD thermal cold plate will be placed on the International Space Station. Start your countdown clock and blast past the break for a full press release.

LG is delivering good news for those affected by random reboots and shutdowns on the Optimus 2X. Today, the company reached out to Engadget and acknowledged the plight of its early adopters. Even better, the manufacturer wants everyone to know it will begin delivering updates in Europe this week, and expects North America to be close behind. In most situations, users will receive the firmware update over-the-air, but this will depend on your carrier and region. After all the hoopla, LG determined these troubles occur when the device is charging, the power button is pressed, or the phone is in standby -- which basically means whenever you reach for it. Let's hope this update filters down to G2x handsets as well. It would seem rather unkind to leave them in the cold, don't you think?
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2xbatteryblankblank screenblankscreenbugbugschargingdual coredual-coredualcorefirmwarefirmware updatefirmwareupdatefixg2xhotissueissueslglg g2xlg optimuslg optimus 2xlgg2xlgoptimuslgoptimus2xmobileoptimusoptimus 2xoptimus2xotaota updateotaupdateproblemrebootrebootsscreenshutdownsmartphonesmartphonest-mobilet-mobile g2xt-mobileg2xtemperaturetemperaturestmobileWed, 18 May 2011 18:50:00 -040021|19942995https://www.engadget.com/2011/05/08/poker-chip-sized-device-non-invasively-measures-brain-temperatur/https://www.engadget.com/2011/05/08/poker-chip-sized-device-non-invasively-measures-brain-temperatur/https://www.engadget.com/2011/05/08/poker-chip-sized-device-non-invasively-measures-brain-temperatur/#comments

Do you ever feel like Portal 2 is making your brain overheat? You should get that checked, and thanks to researchers in Norfolk, Virginia, there's an easier way to do so. The Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters has developed a device the diameter of a poker chip that sits atop a patient's head; by detecting the microwaves that all human tissues produce, it calculates brain temperature without the need for messy skull-popping. The waves pass through the bone to give doctors precise, up-to-the-minute results, which can help prevent brain damage due to overheating. One possible use for the technology is helping hypoxic (oxygen lacking) infants, who can be treated with cooling therapies. Of course, you can probably make do with that old home remedy: just put a bag of frozen carrots on your head next time GlaDOS has you stumped.
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altbrainbrainschildrens hospital of the kings daughterschildrenshospitalofthekingsdaughterschkdheathotmedicalmedicinemicrowavesnon-invasiveoverheatingtemperaturethermometerSun, 08 May 2011 19:12:00 -040021|19934816https://www.engadget.com/2011/03/16/ges-new-phase-change-based-thermal-conductor-could-mean-cooler/https://www.engadget.com/2011/03/16/ges-new-phase-change-based-thermal-conductor-could-mean-cooler/https://www.engadget.com/2011/03/16/ges-new-phase-change-based-thermal-conductor-could-mean-cooler/#comments
It's no secret: if your laptop sits atop your lap for an extended period of time, you're going to get burned -- okay, so maybe not burned, but you're definitely going to feel the heat. Luckily GE has been working (under contract for DARPA) on a new phase-change based thermal conductor that promises to cool electronics twice as well as copper, at one-fourth the weight. The breakthrough means big things for those of us who'd like to make babies one day, but we doubt that's why DARPA's shelling out the big bucks -- the new material functions at 10 times normal gravity, making it a shoo-in for on-board computing systems in jetliners. Using "unique surface engineered coatings" that simultaneously attract and repel water, the new nanotechnology could mean not only lighter, cooler electronics, but also an increase in computing speeds. Goodbye scrotal hyperthermia, hello cool computing! Full PR after the break.
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changeconductorcoolcoolercoolingdarpagegeneral electricgeneralelectricheatheatinghigh gravityhighgravityhotlap toplaptopnanonanotechnanotechnologyoverheatingphasephase changephase-changephasechangeresearchtemperaturethermal conductorthermalconductorWed, 16 Mar 2011 17:59:00 -040021|19881854https://www.engadget.com/2011/02/27/nexus-s-2-3-3-update-adjusts-screens-color-temperature-we-go-e/https://www.engadget.com/2011/02/27/nexus-s-2-3-3-update-adjusts-screens-color-temperature-we-go-e/https://www.engadget.com/2011/02/27/nexus-s-2-3-3-update-adjusts-screens-color-temperature-we-go-e/#comments

We've been hearing reports about Nexus S' Android 2.3.3 update adding a yellow tint to the screen and even washing out its colors, but according to Google's Ry Guy, said patch is indeed intended to tweak the display's color temperature. Here's the full quote from Google's support forum:

"With your new OTA complete, you may notice a slight difference in the way colors are displayed on your Nexus S. For Nexus S, we have adjusted the color temperature settings to more accurately reflect darker colors at all brightness levels. The Gingerbread UI being darker, we found that the colors were not as accurate when the device was being used at lower brightness levels.For example, some users reported that the initial color temperature was too highleading to some darker greys having a reddish tone; with the new color temperature this is no longer the case."

So while this display tweak is well-intentioned, it looks like many commenters on both the forum and XDA-Developers aren't too happy with this. Being curious geeks that we are, we went ahead and manually updated our own Nexus S (and by the way, be sure to match your build number with the appropriate patch). As you can see in our comparison photos (shot with the same manual camera settings and medium screen brightness), the new overall color temperature is no doubt subtly warmer, although the dimmer brightness settings no longer suffer from the aforementioned red tone. Interestingly, we actually approve this change, and the Super AMOLED display certainly doesn't look washed out to us, nor do we see any noisy dithering that some have reported. Surely we can't be alone. Well, there's only one way to help solve this mystery: if you happen to be a fellow Nexus S owner who's applied this update, why not chime in below?